BREAKING new ground is nothing new for Daniel Wiffen at this stage.
In the past 12 months alone, he has smashed an 800m freestyle world record that had stood for 15 years, topped the podium twice at the World Championships and added Olympic gold and bronze to a rapidly increasing haul.
But Friday morning throws the Armagh man into deep water, in every respect, when he competes in the daunting 10k open water marathon race.
Despite previously expressing concern about undertaking a practice swim in the River Seine, for fear of getting ill before the big one, Wiffen was among those who dove in on Wednesday.
It says plenty about the 23-year-old’s mentality, and his determination to make the most of his second Olympic experience, because his medal-winning endeavours so far have taken a significant physical toll.
After just edging out Bobby Finke in the 800m final, the American found an extra gear in the 1500m decider, with Wiffen struggling to keep pace. Earlier this week, he admitted his legs were still “fried” but was confident that, with enough rest and recovery, he would be ready to go by Friday.
“After the 1500 finished I was like ‘I’m really not sure about this’, today I was like ‘I really want to swim in this’. When I woke up this morning I was like ‘I’m swimming, I’m going for it’.
“The pool swimming has definitely taken a toll. My legs are fried right now, but we’ve got until Friday. I’m happy I’m celebrating the pool right now because I can put that behind me and then restart on my new event, which I’ve never done before.”
In spite of his inexperience, Wiffen believes he has the tools to not only compete, but add to his Olympic medal collection.
He has had some words of wisdom from Italian rival Gregorio Paltrinieri and training partner Hector Pardoe – “maybe he’s lying and trying to make me mess up” – ahead of the race, though Wiffen will not be the only one diving into the unknown.
“There’s maybe two or three, my training partner, Felix Aubock from Austria, but I’m the only one who seems to be one of the favourites to get a medal who is doing it for the first time, which is a bit weird.
“Honestly, I believe in my head that I’ve got the capabilities but, because I’ve never done it before, I’ve got no idea what it’s like. It’s going in a bit blind.
“Hector told me the feeding tactics, he’s told me what I need to put in the feeding and given me some race wrap sheets, and they’ve all advised me what they think I should do to work on my strengths. Gregorio Paltrinieri has told me what he thinks I should do.
“Everybody has had a little advice but, honestly, I’m just going to do it my way… in my head I know I want to medal, it might not even be up to me. You have a feeder who gives you the pole, that can mess up and then it can ruin your race. It’s not just down to me, there’s a whole team.
“Also you’ve got to be tactically aware because if you get hit in the face, you could end up getting put out of the race.”
But that is part of the thrill for Wiffen. He watched open water swimmers first hand, he sees what is required, and the lure of collecting another Olympic medal in a separate discipline was too much to resist.
“I train with open water swimmers all the time and, honestly, I think I train a lot harder than a lot of them. The only thing that’s not going my way is I don’t know if I can concentrate for two hours, but we’ll see.
“Also, it’s an extra Olympic event. I want to be a two-sport Olympian, I don’t know if we’ve ever had one of those before. Maybe people say it’s not two different sports but it is - I had to get two accreditations!
“My training partner is also retiring after this, so I want to swim with him for his final race and make it a good one.”
The Wiffen family have been in Paris every step of the way, and will be on the banks of the Seine for Friday’s finale.
And Daniel confirmed all was good between the twins after the 1500m final, having been worried Nathan was disappointed another gold medal wasn’t added at La Defense Arena.
“I thought he was going to be quite angry with my swim - maybe that was just his face - but he was very happy.
“Everybody said the same thing, nobody really cared because we already won gold in the 800, it was really just getting on the podium again at the Olympic Games.
“My best friend put it in perspective to me, he said ‘if you had come to this Games and got a bronze we would all be happy, it’s because you got the gold on the third day…’ [that expectations were raised].
“We came away with two medals, two for two, and we go again in the Seine for another medal.”
That will round off a madcap couple of weeks, during which the likes of Niall Horan and Shane Lowry – “obviously, he loves swimming” – have slid into his DMs, while Wiffen has become something of a star turn in the athletes’ village.
“I kind of just thought it would be big in Ireland, maybe that was so little of me to think that. Honestly, I’ve never experienced… I don’t know if you would call it fame, but what is happening right now in my life.
“Like, I walk out for breakfast, there’s people from random countries coming up to me asking for photos. I’ve never seen this before. I see it with Noah Lyles or Simone Byles or Lebron James when he’s in the village, and then it’s happening to me, it’s like ‘what is going on?’ I just won the 800m freestyle, it’s not like I won the 100m athletics.
“So it’s kind of crazy, but I really do think it’s because I go quite viral for my celebrations. I think that people love it and people love how confident how I am, and they want to support the smaller nations.”
